Pope Francis and his inner cabinet are never finished sermonizing about love and mercy, especially at those he continually denounces as (pathologically) rigid, as if rigidity has been elevated to the highest echelons of sin, so grievous that it must be confessed. But like so much else, and so typical of the left, it’s okay if he does it.

Bergoglio’s recent motu proprio, Traditiones Custodes, is one of the most savage merciless political actions that I have witnessed in my lifetime. It’s brutality, its intention to absolutely crush a political opponent, leaves one gasping, bewildered that such naked political aggression could emanate from the Vatican.

But the nature of the political act and its brutality is one thing. Bergoglio’s instructions to the world’s bishops to carry out the prescribed act of liquidation is another. Does he have the authority to demand obedience to his motu proprio, personal action taken by the pope himself, and do the Catholic faithful have the duty to obey?

Dr Peter Kwasniewski gave the most powerful response yet to Pope Francis at the recent Conference of Catholic Identity, organized by The Remnant Newspaper.

Dr Peter Kwasniewski is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and The Catholic University of America.

He taught at the International Theological Institute in Austria, the Franciscan University fo Steubenville’s Austria Program and Wyoming Catholic College.

He writes for The New Liturgical Movement, The Remnant, LifeSite News. OnePeterFive, Rorate Caeli, The Latin Mass Magzine, and others.